Texas Governor Race

The Texas Governor race is going strong and the vote is only a few weeks away.  The majority of the state disapproves of Republican incumbent Rick Perry, but unfortunately, due to the number of candidates opposing him, he is likely to win regardless.  My great state has no runoff for Governor (and no term limit either) so even if Perry gets only 30% (which current polls have him at), he's the Governor!

The other votes are being distributed between Democrat Chris Bell, Independent Carol Strayhorn, and Independent Kinky Friedman.  As much as I think it would be a nice to "shake things up" in Austin with Independent Kinky, his ideas are just too radical to be a realistic choice.  And due to his past racist remarks and overall brashness, I don't think he would be able to work with other Austin politicians to get things done.  The other Independent Strayhorn is all over the place.  She has been a Democrat, then a Republican, and now an Independent.  She's also been the focus of much controversy over her taking of donations from businesses she is investigating (she is the current Texas Comptroller).  She claims that Austin politics is a corrupt and futile system... She has been working for and a part of this same "futile" system for many years, what is she going to do different now? So that brings us to Democrat Chris Bell.  Bell is an ex-US Congressman who is best known for first bringing charges against Republican Tom Delay for abuse of power and illegal solicitation of money.  Chris Bell's values align with mine.  Unlike the other candidates, he supports stem-cell research, human rights, separation of big business and the Capital, and huge educational reform.  As a teacher, it's clear that the current system of heavily weighted one-time standardized tests is dis-servicing our students.  If you're a Texan, it would behoove you to check out his site: www.ChrisBell.com